One of the best ways to save money and eat healthy is to have a garden. Even a small garden on a roof or balcony can give you a bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables for very little effort. But any good gardener will tell you that keeping the garden watered is key to success. Using a hose or water can works very well but there are more efficient ways of watering that can save you money.

Drip Irrigation is a system of pipes that is worked through a garden and is designed to drip water directly on the roots of a plant instead of misting the top of a plant and hoping the water reaches the roots. The advantage of this type of system is you can use a significantly smaller amount of water directly to where the plant needs it. Water savings of up to 70% versus traditional watering are not unheard of.

One thing that deters people from this type of system is cost. It has been relatively expensive to buy all of the valves, hoses, lines and tapping the system into your existing house pipes to make it a viable alternative. That is not the case anymore. Orbit Irrigation Products now sells a low cost irrigation system that connect to your existing hose faucets at places like WalMart, Lowes, and Home Depot. For $30 you can get a Starter Drip Irrigation Kit for gardens and a 50 ft supply hose which will allow you to install a drip irrigation system for a garden as large as 50 square feet.

There are several advantages to this type of system over traditional irrigation systems which are usually installed underground. First, you don’t need to have a plumber or irrigation specialist install it for you. Just connect it to your hose faucet, lay the lines, and go. Second, since the lines are not buried it is easy to move and expand the system. If you are a renter, you can install and remove this system as needed. Or say you start with the garden and decide you want to add on sprinklers for your flowers or drip watering for your potted plants. With this system all you need to do is buy the hoses and parts to do that then just extend it to what you already have.

Finally, this type of system allows for all the features of a normal irrigation system with the flexibility to change. If you need a smaller system as time goes on, just reduce the number of pipes used. If you want to totally automate your watering, you can easily add a timer to the system. If you live in an apartment with only potted plants, you can connect the system to your washer connection and run the lines to your plants.

Drip Irrigation in a low cost form has finally come home in a way that everyone can enjoy. It makes your gardening life easier, saves you money on water bills, and won’t break the bank to install.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Making Drip Irrigation Systems for Your Garden: An Easy Method (backyardgardeningtips.com)
• Drip Irrigation System: Why Drip Emitters are Important? (backyardgardeningtips.com)
• Recession Gardening: A Defense (takepart.com)

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
Mahatma Gandhi

I love to grow food and flowers – doing so makes me happy, productive and grounded. Gardening is an easy way to reconnect with the basics of life – soil, sun, water and plants – and to give back to the Earth, your community and yourself. When you grow food, you give the gift of beauty to your neighbors, you contribute directly to feeding your friends and family, and you live in a more sustainable manner.

Growing your own food is also a good way to reduce your carbon footprint, and most farmers are willing to share what they know to help get you started. In researching seed companies, I was heartened to find that all of the companies I checked out offer information on growing organic and heirloom foods. When you choose to grow organic food, you choose to do more than simply plant a garden – you choose to respect the planet and reduce your negative environmental impact on the land. And each time you choose to consume food that’s grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, ionizing radiation or genetic modification, you choose to place your health and the health of your community above the interests of agri-businesses and corporate food suppliers.

Once fall settles in and my garden is packed away for the winter, I like to spend time going through seed catalogs and looking for plants for next year’s garden. Check out the organic seed suppliers below – each company sells organic and heirloom seeds, tools and supplies to help in building your beds, and resources to help you know all you need to get started.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds is an employee-owned farm in Albione, Maine, that offers a selection of over 300 kinds of organic and heirloom seeds through their mail-order catalog or via their website. While they aren’t 100% organic, Johnny’s does ensure that none of their seeds or plants are genetically engineered, and they are expanding their supply of organic products. And when it comes to selection, Johnny’s offers a diverse array of vegetable, herb, flower, and cover crop seeds (such as oats and wheat).

Seeds of Change is an organic farm and seed supplier that is committed to living organically and offering organic products to the public.? Founded in 1989, the company’s mission is “to help preserve biodiversity and promote sustainable, organic agriculture” which they achieve by growing 100% organic seeds, seedlings and food. With a selection of over 600 distinct seeds for home gardeners and 100 distinct seeds for commercial growers, Seeds of Change is dedicated to preserving open-pollinated, organically grown, heirloom and traditional vegetable, flower and herb seeds. Looking around the Seeds of Change website, it’s clear that the company truly believes in the importance of living sustainably, and in harmony with the Earth.

Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply is an organic farm and seed company that supports commercial and home growers by offering a wide selection of organic seeds, and by providing their customers with information on organic farming. With a true desire to educate people about organic farming (the company started out in a garage, and sent out 4-page newsletters to growers), the company’s website has a range of resources aimed at keeping growers informed about farming education, grants, publications and news. Searching for seeds is interesting too, as you can “flip through” the company’s electronic seed catalog and flip from section to section with the interactive navigation tools.

The Natural Gardening Company has been around since 1986, and was the first certified organic nursery in the United States. Offering a selection of organic seeds and seedlings for vegetables, herbs, and flowers. The Natural Gardening Company places a high value on the quality of their seeds, and, like the other growers listed here, does not sell any genetically engineered plants or seeds. You can select from over 50+ different kinds of organic vegetable seeds, and spend the spring sowing endive, okra and collard greens if you’re so inclined.The Natural Gardening Company also sells gardening accessories and offers helpful gardening tips on their site.

If you’ve never grown vegetables, I encourage you to give it a try. You can grow some vegetables in containers on your porch, dig up the grass and plant a big, sunny bed, or drop seeds into an existing flower garden – it’s not how much you grow that matters, it’s that you grow at all.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Organic Certified Healthy for Us and the Planet

This past week I was lucky enough to see Stonyfield Farm Chairman, President, and “CE-Yo,” Gary Hirshberg, give a lecture at the RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH. On my way home from an evening walk, I noticed the bookstore was filled with people and decided to stop in and see what was going on. Am I happy that I stopped! Not only is Hirshberg a fantastic speaker, but his lecture touched on all things environmental, from organic farming and foods to solid waste management and conservation at the highest levels of business.

Hirshberg has a new book, Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World, and is on an extensive book tour promoting his efforts and touting tips on how to cut your carbon emissions, use fewer resources and still turn a profit. I thought he was an extremely good speaker – his honesty and sincerity were evident from the start of his talk, and you could just tell that his passion for saving the planet is real.

In addition to letting us in on his past – from his beginnings at The New Alchemy Institute on Cape Code – to his recent conversations with CEOs of major companies including Wal-Mart, Hirshberg shared stories about how Stonyfield Farms is doing their part to be a steward to the environment by managing their externalities, reducing waste, and recycling anything that’s left over.

While I’ve not yet had a chance to purchase his book, I intend on doing so. Hirshberg uses the text in order to call on individuals and businesses:

to realize their power to effect change in the marketplace – ‘the power of one’ – while proving that environmental commitment makes for a healthier planet and a healthier bottom line.

And in listening to Hirshberg, I truly got the sense that not only does he believe in his philosophy, but that he wants to do everything possible to make his philosophy a reality for as many people as humanly possible. Part of what made his talk so compelling too, was his emphasis on the positive – he wasn’t all gloom and doom when speaking about the challenges of changing human behavior in order to save the environment. Rather, Hirshberg offered an attitude of optimism, and made me feel that all of the little things I do on my own may actually make a difference in the long run.

Hirshberg also spoke extensively about Stonyfield Farm’s non-profit foundation, Climate Counts – an organization that fosters a “collaborative effort to bring consumers and companies together in the fight against global climate change.” One of the services that Climate Counts provides is a Scorecard that grades major corporations on their environmental responsibilities. I checked out the tool and was surprised to see how poorly companies including CBS and Levi Strauss scored, and also how well Nike and IBM did on their scores.

What I found most interesting about the entire lecture however, was learning about all of Stonyfield’s environmental initiatives. At the farm, nothing is wasted, and they really strive to make green changes with every new product they create, and with all of their existing products. Additionally, Stonyfield Farm gives 10% of its profits to environmentally-friendly organizations, has its carbon emissions offset 100%, and invites their customers to return their yogurt containers to the farm so they can be recycled into spoons and other products.

Check out Stonyfield Fams if you get a chance – and by the way, their yogurt is great too!